Transparency key to Google's new BT offering

As privacy groups continue to seek behavioral targeting regula­tions, Google has introduced its own version of behavioral targeting advertising that serves ads based on consumers' online activities.

Google is launching the service in beta on YouTube and partner sites. Ads will pull from categories based on the types of sites a con­sumer visits.

“By making ads more relevant, and improving the connection between advertisers and our users, we can create more value for everyone,” said Susan Wojcicki, VP of product management at Google, in a blog post.

For its part, the online adver­tising industry is welcoming the new platform. “Behavioral target­ing itself is not new, but it is very interesting because there is still a lot of non-targeted inventory out there,” said Scott Symonds, executive director, AKQA Media, search & analytics. “I agree with the Google perspective, which is that anything making the advertis­ing relevant through this technol­ogy is good for the consumer and the advertiser.”

The Internet giant is providing users the ability to edit their com­piled profile information − a first in the space. Like Yahoo and AOL, it also will let users opt out.